1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for and method of generating orthogonal frequency division multiplexed signal, a demodulator, and a communication apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Commercializing of the OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) system is promoted as a modulation method of digital communication.
An example of a system to which OFDM is applied is the EUREKA-147 SYSTEM. Generally, this is referred to as DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) or the EUREKA-147 DAB system. This EUREKA-147 DAB system was approved by ITU-R (International Telecommunication Union-Radio communication sector) on November 1994 as System-A and becomes an international standard. This standard has been issued as “ETS 300401”.
In the EUREKA-147 DAB system, each sub-carrier in the OFDM is subjected to phase modulation. As a phase modulation system, is employed the differential QPSK (Quadrature Phase Shift Keying) system, in which main data is transmitted by phase differences of respective sub-carriers between an OFDM symbol duration and the just preceding OFDM symbol duration.
In the EUREKA-147 DAB system, since data is transmitted by phase differences of respective sub-carriers between OFDM symbols, a demodulation means in a receiver requires phase information that becomes a reference. For this purpose, phase reference symbols are periodically inserted into an OFDM signal being transmitted. Each phase reference symbol is constituted by sub-carriers having predetermined reference phases.
Further, in demodulating operation at receiving, each OFDM symbol duration should be specified in order that each OFDM symbol duration is converted onto a frequency axis to extract sub-carrier components on the frequency axis. To that end, in the EUREKA-147 DAB system, a symbol for coarse synchronization, called a null symbol, is inserted just before a phase reference symbol.
The null symbol is a “null” signal having no sub-carrier for transmitting main data. Usually, on the receiving side, a null symbol duration is specified from change of an envelope of the received signal, in order to decide roughly each OFDM symbol duration.
In the EUREKA-147 DAB system, it is possible to optionally superimpose a TII (Transmitter Identification Information) signal on a null symbol duration to identify a transmitting station. The TII signal is transmitted by transmission of only some predetermined sub-carriers out of the sub-carriers of an OFDM symbol. In that case, a null symbol duration is not a null signal but has a waveform of slight amplitude. However, it is suppressed to relatively small amplitude as compared to the amplitude of other OFDM symbol durations transmitting the phase reference symbol or main data.
Taking an example of the mode 2 of the EUREKA-147 DAB system, arrangement of the sub-carriers on the frequency axis in a null symbol duration will be described in the case that a TII signal is added. In the mode 2 of the EUREKA-147 DAB system, information is transferred by 384 sub-carriers.
FIG. 1 shows an arrangement of the sub-carriers on the frequency axis in a null symbol duration in the case that a TII signal is added. As shown in FIG. 1, a TII signal is constituted by some pairs of adjacent sub-carriers of predetermined frequencies in accordance with an identification code defined for each transmitting station. As compared to other OFDM symbols, the number of the sub-carriers is very small. Accordingly, when observed, it has such a waveform that a signal of relatively small amplitude is superimposed on a null symbol duration.
As described above, when a TII signal is superimposed on a null symbol duration, the null symbol duration is actually not a null signal but has a waveform of slight amplitude. Thus, it is possible that superimposition of a TII signal on a null symbol duration makes detection of the null symbol difficult in a receiver. For example, in a location of bad receiving conditions, it is difficult to discriminate between a null symbol and the other OFDM symbols. Further, depending on receiving conditions, a transmitting station expressed by a TII signal may become difficult to be discriminated.
Such situation is not limited to the transmission of a TII signal, and it is possible that similar difficulty is caused when a null symbol duration is utilized for transmitting other data, in addition to data transmitted by phase modulation.